...you have to give commissioner Gary Bettman credit for at least pushing to get the situation resolved.

This is so begging for some serious rebuttals...least of all is the PHX situation and there is an ownership change happening in FLA that’s getting less publicity than it should.

Posted by SYF from Las Vegas, NV on 08/10/09 at 03:11 PM ET

Sorry, but anything to do with the nhl buttman should not get credit for. Unless of course you want to credit him with watering down the product so much hardly anyone cares about its viability, or being committed to losing franchises that he brought into the league to the detriment of the league, or failing to procure any wide cable exposure, why, then, I’m right there with ya! He’s done a bang up job at that!

Posted by Alan from NYC on 08/10/09 at 03:16 PM ET

What an insipid article.

That’s like praising the driving skill of someone whose car just plowed into a crowd of 20 people when he only kills 10 of them.

Do better, Damien.

Posted by HockeyinHD on 08/10/09 at 03:35 PM ET

Here’s a nice list of things Buttman deserves credit for:

NOT tapping into the right market for his franchises.
Ignoring fan’s demands for more Canadian teams.
Over-expanding the league, therefore diluting the number of quality players per team.
Getting booed off the ice at every event, yet still wanting to be there to ruin the moment at every Stanley Cup giveaway. (BOOOOOOOO!!!)
Getting personal with the Balsilie thing..  Get over it, Gary, you will ALWAYS be short.. And Balsilie is the ideal owner: loaded with $.

I don’t work for these guys, but look into http://www.firebettman.com for a good laugh at the village idiot, Buttman..

Posted by Luke from Csanada on 08/10/09 at 03:56 PM ET

I see. And what were his options? He already looks like a jackass for allowing them to have the team in the first place.

Posted by cbh from Toronto on 08/10/09 at 03:58 PM ET

Tampa has been somewhat of a sun-belt success…

The other Flordia market and the simple fact that Flordia has two NHL teams, while other large hockey markets do not have any is a fail on his part.

Posted by moore00 from the Ohio State University on 08/10/09 at 04:07 PM ET

Since the lockout the Lightning have lost a smidge over 4000 fans a game on average, the on-ice product is in complete disarray, the ownership situation is in critical condition to the point that it seems unlikely either guy will be able to buy out the other (barring the NHL allowing a little bit of Boots-isfying of the books), and it’s more than likely the team will begin bleeding money at an even faster rate as things progress… which will make everything else much more dire rather than less so.

And that’s a ‘Sun Belt Success?’

The Coyotes are already in complete disarray.  The Lightning are next.  The Thrashers are either going to have to pay Kovalchuk an ungodly sum or risk becoming even more irrelevant and thready financially than they already are.

Gary Bettman and his coterie have created a financial environment via his ill-composed CBA and stubborn insistence on non-traditional hockey markets which is systematically destroying the weaker teams in his league.

Posted by HockeyinHD on 08/10/09 at 05:09 PM ET